The Good News

"God created things which had free will. That means creatures which can
go either wrong or right. Some people think they can imagine a creature
which was free but had no possibility of going wrong; I cannot. If a
thing is free to be good it is also free to be bad. And free will is
what has made evil possible. Why, then, did God give them free will?
Because free will, though it makes evil possible, is also the only thing
that makes possible any love or goodness or joy worth having. A world of
automata - of creatures that worked like machines - would hardly be
worth creating. The happiness which God designs for His higher creatures
is the happiness of being freely, voluntarily united to Him and to each
other in an ecstasy of love and delight compared with which the most
rapturous love between a man and a woman on this earth is mere milk and
water. And for that they must be free."
C.S. Lewis - Mere Christianity

God's Love

The Bible teaches us that God is love and that He loves us. He
desires that we experience an abundant life. This would include such
things as love, peace, purpose, and fulfillment. Jesus, speaking
about His purpose for coming to earth, said, "I have come that they
may have life, and have it to the full"John
10:10bNIV. In the
beginning, when God put man on earth, God and man had a relationship
which produced an abundant life.

Man's Problem

But God did not create man like a robot who would automatically love
and have fellowship with Him in return. He gave man a will and the
freedom of choice.

Man could keep God's commandments or he could
live his life apart from God. Man chose to go his own way. This
resulted in a separation between God and man. God is completely holy
and perfect, while man is sinful and imperfect. The Bible says, "We
all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own
way"Isaiah
53:6NIV. People
continue to go their own way today. And this applies to all men.
Each one of us is guilty. All of us have made decisions and done
actions and had thoughts that were contrary to what God desires. We
have been like wandering sheep.

The result of turning away from God and doing things that are
displeasing to God is spiritual death-eternal death. The Bible also
says, "For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal
life in Christ Jesus our Lord"Romans
6:23NIV. For now we
will just look at the first half of this verse.

Paul states here that the consequences or payment we receive in
return for our sins is eternal death. So you can see that on man's
side we have eternal death, and on God's side there is eternal life.
The last part of this verse talks about the free gift of God being
eternal life, and that will become clearer as we develop this
diagram. For now, we seem to be stuck on the death side.

ReadHebrews
9:27. You can see as
we look at this verse that each of us will die physically, and after
we die physically we will face judgment. The Bible teaches that
there will be a day of judgment when God will judge the actions and
thoughts of every man and woman. InRevelation
20:15the Bible says
that "If anyone's name was not found written in the book of life, he
was thrown into the lake of fire." NIV

So you can see that on man's side we have sinned, and the penalty
of those sins is eternal death. Also we see that the consequences of
our sins is for us to face the judgment of God. This gives a pretty
dismal picture of our situation on this side of the chasm that
separates us from God.

Man's Remedy

Human beings think they can devise their own way to obtain God's
favour and blessing. They usually devise codes of conduct and
requirements that need to be performed in order to please God. These
include giving to charity, helping others, praying, attending
church, or being baptized. However, God's Word states that all these
efforts are useless in the sight of a holy God to obtain God's
salvation. (Next readEphesians
2:8-9). From this
verse we understand that good works will never suffice to meet God's
requirements but that God's salvation is a gift that is obtained by
grace alone through faith alone.

God's Remedy

In spite of the fact that we have turned our backs on God and have
disobeyed Him, God still loves us and desires that we know Him
personally so that He can bless us.

Only one adequate bridge can
cross the gulf that exists between man and God, and that bridge is
through Jesus Christ and His death on the cross.

The Bible also says, "But God demonstrates His own love for us in
this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us"Romans
5:8. NIV

The Bible teaches that when He died on the cross, He died in our
place. He paid the penalty and took the judgment for our sins so we
could be forgiven for all our wrongdoings. The slate could be wiped
clean.

Man's Response

Christ has made it possible for us to cross over to God's side and
experience the full life He wants us to have. But we are not
automatically on God's side. We need to take action; we need to ask
God's forgiveness and ask Jesus Christ into our lives.

"The time
has come," Jesus said. "The kingdom of God is near. Repent and
believe the good news!"Mark
1:15NIV. Repentance
means to reverse direction. We must give up our efforts to reach God
by man's remedies and accept God's remedy for our sins.

The Bible also says, "Yet to all who received Him, to those who
believed in His name, He gave the right to become children of God"John
1:12NIV. We "reach
out" to God through prayer and receive the gift of eternal life.

So the door on which Jesus is knocking is the very center of our
lives-the heart, the core, the innermost part of our lives. He is
knocking and would like to come into our lives. So He wants us to
open the door and invite Him in.

Summary

Let's take a look atJohn
5:24. This statement
of Jesus summarizes all we have talked about. "I tell you the truth,
whoever hears My word [the things we have been discussing here] and
believes Him who sent Me [believe means to receive, that is, to
invite Christ into our lives] has eternal life [a present
possession] and will not be condemned [judgment] ; he has crossed
over from death to life." NIV